- A call for more vigilance to Standards Organisation of Nigeria
The danger of cooking gas cylinder explosion has increased in the country with the importation of substandard cylinders. In August, cooking gas cylinder explosion in Warri almost killed a couple, but for the quick intervention of the police and fire fighters, and proximity of the explosion to the police station. And in China, the country’s CCTV also reported gas cylinder explosions in March and April in Xianyang City and in Wuxi, Jiangsu.
We find the existence of substandard cooking gas cylinders very alarming. It is counterproductive that at a time that the population, especially in both urban and rural areas, is increasingly warming up to transition from cooking with wood to gas, the conditions for importing cooking gas cylinders seem to have become lax to the point that cylinders without brand name and batch number are now common in the country. The fear of cylinder explosion is capable of driving citizens back to the tradition of deforestation and its negative impact on the environment.
It is embarrassing that the in-flow of substandard cylinders has reached a level that compels staff of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to go to markets in search of substandard gas cylinders. The danger posed by defective cooking gas cylinders is serious enough for SON and the Customs to stop such products at the ports of entry. SON’s vigilance would be more effective if its mobile laboratory at the ports had tested every batch of imported cylinders into the country. This is an assignment that could have been carried out in collaboration with other safety and security units that are always present at the ports.
Further, marketers who are frustrating SON’s staff from looking for cylinders without batch numbers are not helping matters. Government at all times has the duty to ensure that substandard products do not thrive in the country, even if after such products had gotten through the ports without detection. Such belated checks are better than leaving citizens and their property at the mercy of imported or even domestic products that could be dangerous to life and property of citizens. Retailers of such products ought to be sensitive to the well-being of their customers.
Relatedly, government and other stakeholders should begin massive enlightenment on how to distinguish good from bad gas cylinders, and give retailers and users adequate information about the danger in holding on to products that are dangerous to individuals and the community. It is one thing for a country to find a dumping ground for substandard products from its factories, but it is expected that the citizens, especially those in the business of importing such defective products, will be mindful of quality and safety of such products, before marketing them to innocent buyers.
Indeed, it is high time the local manufacturing by Techno Oil Ltd of Nigeria’s TechnoGas LPG cylinders at the 31st World LPG Forum in Houston, Texas is developed to include production of cooking gas cylinders that citizens can buy without fear of causing fire to its users. The SON needs to give as much attention to certifying the Nigerian brand as it does to imported brands from China and elsewhere.
Nigeria, among other developing countries, cannot afford to lose the war on deforestation arising from reliance on wood and charcoal as fuel for cooking. The most effective way to win this war and protect citizens from avoidable harm is to ensure that cooking gas cylinders in the country meet global quality and safety standards.
